The Lacombe Rams football team fell 34-11 to the Hunting Hills Lightning in the league final on Saturday.

For a change, Rams head coach Jason Petrie thought his team started the game strong, as Lacombe opened scoring midway through the first quarter with a field goal from Jack Bahler.

Hunting Hills took the lead soon after, running a fake punt for a touchdown. Brandon Rees extended the lead to 14-3, running for another touchdown after Austin Schneider's punt return took the Lightning to the one-yard line.

"If you had told me at the beginning of the year, we'd be in the championship final and down by 11 points at half time, I'd be jumping through my skin. I would have been pretty excited about that and that's where we were," Petrie said.

"We established our offence. We played very, very well on defence ... we just didn't convert inside the 20 (yard line) like we needed to, in the first half."

Lacombe Rams receiver Simon Gray tries to break a tackle in the first half.

The Lightning put the game out of reach in the third quarter thanks to a touchdown catch and a fumble recovery in the Rams endzone. The Lightning would add one more major in the fourth.

Petrie had nothing but respect for Hunting Hills.

"They did not make a mistake in the second half. They played error-free football," he said. "They're a very well-coached football team. That's a senior team ... just about all of them on the field, they're Grade 12s."

The Hunting Hills Lightning lift the league trophy after a decisive victory over the Lacombe Rams. "They did not make a mistake in the second half. They played error-free football," said Rams head coach Jason Petrie. "They're a very well-coached football team."

A second-place finish is an improvement from last year when Lacombe finished third, which was an improvement from a time when the team didn't win a game. Petrie predicts the football program to bring home a championship in the near future.

Players have said that this team became a close-knit group, where everybody got along. Both the coach and Rams quarterback Johnny Ericson remarked on the growth of their squad over the course of the season.

"At the beginning of the year, we weren't connected, we weren't playing as a group. We were playing as individuals on the field and we kept on growing and we kept on improving every game," Ericson said.

A few Rams seniors played their final high school football game, including Johnny Ericson, Wyatt Glover, David Morin, Evan Standish, Tristyn Foley, Matt Darnell and Jeremy Blakley. The "lifeblood of our team," Petrie calls them.

He expects a number of them to play junior football next year.

For Ericson, Rams football has prepared him for the next stage in his playing career. He is weighing a few offers from universities across Canada.

"I'm just looking at education-wise, what I can take. Got to figure that out first and what universities offer what I want. Just also what's the best fit for me and my family," he said.